“This is sufficiently true that it can never be overemphasized. Leadership is everything, get it right and everything falls in place and then, miss it and all you would do is to engage in blame games”
…Leadership makes all the difference:
The Omenuko bridge became a death trap around the mid-1980s and cut short the lives of too many people, wrecked families, made parents childless, orphaned children and made the entire stretch from Abam to Ohafia and then Arochukwu, difficult to access.
To summarise the entire event in a few sentences would be difficult but I would put it this way: Friday, February 13, 2026, formally opened a new chapter for the district and in a most-fitting manner, brought to an end what, for 40 years or more, was the epitome of nightmare and anxiety for hundreds of thousands of individuals and families, across generations.
I was live at Abam and witnessed it all and as always, I took 5 things with me as I was leaving:
The futility of “stomach infrastructure” politics
For 40 years, that Omenuko bridge leading to Arochukwu-Abam-Ohafia road driving from Umuahia lay in dilapidation, cut the destinies of many persons short, threatened the lives of thousands and from any angle you look at it, disaster was never far away. So why did precious governments not fix it? You may excuse the military administrators; they were not elected and never made any commitment to anyone.
But what about Governors elected by our own people, the ones who have been ruling this State since 1999?
How did Omenuko skip their agenda? What happened?
How about those who had worked with Abuja or rather from Abuja before now?
Why did they not bring the authorities to actually do what needed to be done on that bridge, for their people, for the preservation of lives?
Senators, HoR members, ministers and others who played within the corridors of power in Abuja?
The answer, obviously, is simple; they preferred sharing of money to doing actual work. It appears it is more politically profitable to share money than work for the people here.
Unfortunately, Governor Otti kicked out that idea more than 2 years ago.
Now, every money belonging to the State is being applied to fixing the State, especially its stock of public infrastructure.
Omenuko bridge is indeed proof that in the New Abia, the only way to use public money is to work for the people, the true owners of the money.
2. Leadership makes all the difference:
This is sufficiently true that it can never be overemphasized. Leadership is everything, get it right and everything falls in place and then, miss it and all you would do is to blame Lord Lugard and his girlfriend till eternity, to the applause of a credulous audience.
Yes, the only reason we cannot evacuate refuse is the mistake of Lord Lugard, he merged us into the same country with ndi anyi na amaghi dia way.
Maybe true.
But neither Lord Lugard nor his girlfriend stopped our leaders from exercising the responsibilities of leadership.
We are better today because we have a Governor who appreciates that you do not solve problems by heaping blames on others.
You simply take responsibility and everything falls in place.
Are you in doubt?
Go round Abia, and then watch before and after pictures of Omenuko bridge.
3. Our people have seen the light, it will be near-impossible to return us to the era of wheelbarrow empowerment.
It is either the Otti standard or nothing.
I saw it yesterday, the eyes of the people have been opened, they have seen that there is money to get things done, if the leader can put his foot down and insist that nothing unconnected to public welfare shall be a priority in the disbursement of public funds.
So it will be impossible for anyone to impose layabouts as governors here, ever again.
If you attempt it, the people will fight you with their lives. And they will win.
4. Governor Alex Otti will win the 2027 guber election resoundingly, no questions about that.
As a matter of fact, it will take a miracle to convince up to 3% of the voting population to as little as listen to anyone claiming to oppose Otti.
Now I am not talking of voting o, just get them to even listen to whatever you want to say.
So let me be the first to congratulate Governor Otti on his sure victory in 2027, if Christ tarries.
Why am I so sure, you may ask.
And I will point you to the crowd at Ozu Abam Secondary School on Friday 13th February 2026, and the testimonies of the representatives of leaders from different parts of the State who graced the occasion.
5. Tenacity pays, do not abandon your assignment:
Yesterday as I watched proceedings from a corner where I stood, I kept wondering, what could have happened if Dr. Alex Otti had listened to the voice of man and given up, after the setbacks of 2015 and 2019?
What could have happened to this land, to our people?
Again I do not know everything but I have interacted with many senior Abia politicians and listened to their programmes, none could have attempted 10% of what Governor Otti had taken on, and delivered in the last 32 months.
Not one.
It then follows that if Governor Otti had listened to the voices that advised him, with good intentions, to stop wasting time ahead of 2023, Abia would have remained the way it has always been, or perhaps, a few tokens of improvements here and there but the scale and magnitude of transformation we have seen, would simply have been impossible.
The message applies to all of us:
Never abandon that mission God has placed in your hands, keep at it, and eventually you will win.
Never give up.
